BOLIVIA—Hurricane Irene has been blamed for at least 27 deaths as her wind and rain tore across most of the entire U.S. eastern coastline. Damage estimates from the storm have topped the $10 billion mark.

But here in Brunswick County, damage was minimal, leading emergency officials to declare “we dodged a bullet.”

The state of emergency had been in place for Brunswick County since Friday, Aug. 26. N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue declared a state of emergency for all the coastal counties, including Brunswick County, late Wednesday, Aug. 24.

BOLIVIA—The roster of the county’s Social Services board is dwindling.

On Aug. 15, longtime board member Moses Stanley resigned from the board when he accepted a job in the superior court judge’s office. The county’s code of conduct, adopted by commissioners last December, prohibits county employees from serving on elected or appointed boards.

Then last week, Tina Jackson resigned from the board, bringing the current roster of the five-member board to three.

BOLIVIA—Two local activists have taken issue with a recent budgetary move by county commissioners that allowed Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Ola Lewis to fund a position in her office.

At their July 5 meeting, county commissioners unanimously approved a request Lewis made to transfer funds from her special court programs to fund a judicial assistant position, which she said was lost through reduction in force by the state’s Administrative Office of the Courts.